


Open Your Eyes

by nostalgia



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Spoilers sweetie, mild angst i suppose, recent regeneration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-15
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2018-02-08 23:32:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1960368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nostalgia/pseuds/nostalgia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River is visited by a new and clearly troubled Doctor. So obviously they go on a date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Open Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> CAREFUL NOW: contains vague Deep Breath spoilers because I am weak and spoilerised myself completely.

River walked between the bookshelves, deep in the biographies section of the university library. No neolithic hunter-gatherer had ever been more set upon their task. It had taken her a while to track the book down to this backwater planet, which the inter-library loans department at her own university still insisted didn't exist.

She found the gap on the shelves where the book should have been. She swore at the empty space and turned to leave.

“Is this what you're looking for?” 

River took the proffered volume - _The Oncoming Storm: A Temporal Biography_ \- and looked up to look at the man who had handed it to her. Parents aside she was Time Lord enough that she didn't need to look twice. 

“Doctor?”

“It's full of nonsense, you realise.”

She looked down at the book in her hands, trying to suppress the feeling that she'd been caught cheating on an exam. “I've always enjoyed fiction,” she said by way of a defence. She produced her diary from her jacket pocket. “I take it you're a later Doctor?”

The Doctor plucked the diary from her grasp and shoved it into his coat pocket. “Never mind that,” he said.

River looked at him more carefully than before. “You said I always had to check.”

“Spoilers.” He took her hands in his, pulled her towards him, and kissed her.

River broke away after a few moments to ask, “What's wrong?”

He raised his eyebrows. “What, I can't kiss my wife unless there's something wrong?”

“Don't lie to me,” she warned. 

“I lie to you all the time,” he said easily. “To be honest, I thought you got off on that a bit.”

“Well I don't.” She tried to stare the truth out of him, fairly certain that it wasn't going to work this time. 

“I have a friend...” he began, before trailing off into silence. 

“And?”

“And now I'm going to change the subject.” He smiled. “Would you like to join me for dinner?”

 

 

River watched him as he read the menu in the restaurant. He looked older than her usual Doctor, with less chin and more eyebrow. She wondered how much older he really was, and she tried not to wonder what had happened to _her_ Doctor to cause him to regenerate.

“Why are you staring?” he asked without looking up from the menu. 

“Just enjoying the view,” she said.

He set the menu down on the table. “I think I'll have fish and chips. I've developed an odd fondness for deep-fried foods recently.” He poured himself a glass of wine and said “What?” when River raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“You don't like wine.”

He looked at her with an odd expression. “Is it a problem for you?”

River shook her head. “Not at all.” She had to ask, though. “When did it happen? The regeneration?”

“I think that counts as spoilers, don't you?”

“I just wondered how recently you changed, that's all.” She wasn't going to ask how her Doctor had died, she knew she didn't really want to know.

“It hasn't been long,” he told her. 

River wasn't quite sure what to say next. 

“You know what it's like,” he went on, “seeing a different face in the mirror, trying to find something that fits, people being... still, change is how we survive.” He reached across the table and took her hand. “I'm still me.”

“I know that.”

He smiled. “Good.”

 

He took her home in the TARDIS, stood on her doorstep as she looked for her front door key. He still hadn't told her what was wrong, but she'd picked up enough from his silences to know that it had to do with the regeneration. 

“Are you coming in?” she asked as she opened the door.

He glanced back at the TARDIS before nodding and following her into the house. 

River shrugged off her jacket and hung it on the peg in the hallway. “Thank you for dinner,” she said. 

The Doctor shrugged. “You paid.”

“Yes, but I always have to do that.” She looked up at him. “One of these days we're going to have to get you a bank account, at least.”

“I'm not sure I'm ready for that sort of commitment.”

“Yes, but -” She was silenced by his mouth on hers. Her back hit the wall gently as he pressed against her, his hands sliding to her hips. 

“Taking the initiative for once?” she asked when they parted. 

He looked almost surprised. “Apparently.”

She brought her hand up to trace the lines on his new face. “Still getting used to yourself?”

“It's just...”

“You have a friend,” she prompted. 

“Yes.”

“And?”

He looked at her sadly. “I don't think my friend likes me any more.”

“I'm sure she does.”

“Who said she's a she?” he asked, a bit sharply.

“Aren't they all?”

“Not always,” he said, lifting his hand to touch the buttons on her blouse. River caught his hand and he looked at her, his expression halfway between surprise and hurt. “I thought you wanted -”

“And I do. But I'm not a distraction, I'm not here to stop you worrying about other people.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Give it time,” she suggested. “Have patience.”

“Me? Patience? I regenerated, I didn't have a personality-transplant.”

River smiled. “And I wouldn't have it any other way.” She smiled her most wicked smile. “So, does this mean you're a virgin again?”

“No! Well, _technically_ , depending on how you define these things, and I personally don't -”

She kissed him. 

 

River sat with her diary on her knee, sheets tangled around her waist. She tapped a pen against her bottom lip as she tried to think what to write.

“I hope you're not going to write anything explicit in there,” said the Doctor. 

“I didn't know you were awake,” she said, setting her diary and the pen to one side. “I was just going to make a few notes.”

“If you're rating my regenerations by sexual performance, I'll...”

“You'll what? Spank me?” She moved to lie beside him. “Don't worry, I'm very discreet.”

“Since when?” he asked, sceptically, slipping an arm round her waist.

“Since always!” River glanced at the clock on the night-stand. “I have a lecture in an hour.”

“I have a time machine,” he said, unconcerned. 

“Even so,” she said, slipping from his grasp and leaving the bed. “Am I going to see you again?” she asked.

“Honestly, I don't know.” He sat up. “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For being you.” He looked around the room. “Where did I leave my trousers?”

River laughed. “I'm going for a shower. You can see yourself out.”

“I can, but that doesn't mean I _want_ to.” 

“Can't always have what you want, Sweetie,” she said as she headed to the bathroom. 

“No,” she heard him say, “I suppose not.”

 

River returned the book a week later. “Interesting,” she told the librarian at the desk, “but I noticed a few mistakes.”

“You should contact the author.”

“I thought I'd write my own instead. I've already written some notes.”

“Do you know him?” asked the librarian in slightly hushed tones.

“Always.”


End file.
